Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 80342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
“Eighteen.” Her innocence was confirmed when she pursed her little lips and looked crestfallen.
“That’s forever away.”
“Nah, kid, life goes by really fast.” I tweaked her nose and went back to playing.
I went on with my life, going away to college, getting a job in the architectural firm my family had started back in the eighteen hundreds, and no, I didn’t start at the top just because I bore the family name.
Architecture isn’t something you can play off, you either have it, or you don’t, unless you want to steal someone else’s ideas, which was a thought too foul for me to even contemplate.
So I started at the bottom and worked my way up and was rewarded with the knowledge that my work was a success because of my own merit. I married my college sweetheart the year I turned twenty-four and quickly became pregnant. We were overjoyed.
My job was pretty steady, of course, since I would be taking over the firm in a few years when my dad retired, and Lauren was doing pretty good as a real estate lawyer. Things got even better when the twins were born almost a year after our wedding, and my parents decided to give us the family home, the place where I’d grown up.
Dad had been working less and less hours, and mom was finally able to talk him into doing the traveling she’d always dreamed of. Between the two of them, they’d decided that a house this large, five bedrooms, six bathrooms, a home office, a library, and a nursery were too much for their new lifestyle.
Lauren and I were only too happy to switch places with them. We signed over ownership of our condo to my parents, and they gave me the house free and clear since, as they said, it was going to be mine one day anyway.
It was great to be back in the old neighborhood; I hadn’t really been back since I left home for college almost eight years earlier, except for the odd trip home here and there. In all this time, I never once thought of the little girl with the big blue eyes and the cute dimples.
When the twins were about six months old, Lauren decided it was time for date night again and that we should find a babysitter. I wasn’t too sure about leaving my helpless little angels with a stranger, so far, my mom or hers were the only ones we’d left them with, and that was only for an hour or two.
“Oh, come on, Derrick, it’ll be fine.”
“But they’re so young.”
“So? People leave their babies some even younger with a sitter all the time; it’s not the end of the world.” How was she so nonchalant when I felt like it was a betrayal of the worst kind?
“I know, but…” I looked at my little darlings in their playpen, smashing their toys one minute and trying to eat them the next, and there was no way I was letting them out of my sight until they were at least twenty-one.
“No buts. I’ll just ask around the neighborhood, and we’ll interview some candidates until we find one you like.”
I nodded my head, okay, but I wasn’t sure where she was going to find a babysitter in this neighborhood. I’m pretty sure kids only do that stuff to make some extra cash, and the kids in this neighborhood will surely not be hurting in that department.
The houses here run to upwards of ten million dollars, so I’m pretty sure we were talking trust fund babies, just like I was. But Lauren was sure she’d find someone.
It wasn’t a week later that she was singing the praises of some young teenage maven that all the housewives had raved to her about. “Everybody loves her, and the best part, she lives just down the street from us, isn’t that great?” She took a sip from her coffee cup as she bubbled over with excitement.
“Everyone around here uses her, she’s been sitting for two years, and there’s never been a problem.”
“How old is she?” I was expecting her to tell me fourteen or something like that so I could tell her no way. I still wasn’t sold on the idea.
“She’s eighteen.”
“What self-respecting eighteen year old is available to watch someone else’s kids on a Saturday night?” Her face took on a sullen half compassionate look.
“From what I’ve heard, she’s a homebody. She seems to spend most of her time studying and does very well in school, but there’s no boyfriend or anything like that as far as I’ve learned. Poor thing, she must be plain as milquetoast.”
That’s Lauren for you. Everything resorts back to looks. I guess it’s understandable for someone who looks like her. Not to brag, but my wife is a knockout.
She’s five foot nine, has shoulder-length dark brown hair with a slight wave to it that frames her beautiful face perfectly, and hazel eyes that turn green when we fuck with a slight spattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose that are only visible in the summer when she gets a light tan.